


Hauntings at the Hotel Merry

by startaroux



Series: Hotel Merry [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Angst, Drowning, Everyone is Dead, Gen, Gun Violence, because they all die, but not too sad because they're ghosts, seriously it's all pretty sad, they are (and i cannot stress this enough) all gonna be ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 05:23:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21248141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/startaroux/pseuds/startaroux
Summary: The Hotel Merry is centuries old and very, very haunted. These are the stories of how its nine "residents" died.





	Hauntings at the Hotel Merry

**Author's Note:**

> This is an au I came up with a few days ago while listening to a spooky podcast, and I decided to flesh it out the rest of the way and post it in honor of Halloween. I'm thinking I might make this into a series, so this will probably be like a prologue of sorts. Hope you enjoy!
> 
> EDIT: Changed Franky's year of death for stupid purposes that will be made clear in the future.

Brook was the first to die and as such, is the oldest ghost at the Hotel Merry. In fact, he lost his life in 1791, years before the hotel was even completed.

Brook was a composer of moderate fame who was traveling to the city for one last concert before retirement. The only mode of travel at this time was on horseback, of course, so he and his companions had to travel through rough winter conditions in mid-December.

The merry band of musicians began coming down with illnesses such as pneumonia and the common cold. One by one, they died off from diseases that could easily be treated today.

Brook was the only one left by the time he made it into the city, though he soon found that he was sick as well. He had arrived at his destination but unfortunately, he never made it to a hospital as he collapsed on the way there. Brook stumbled into a pit and died that night, not only from his sickness but also from the freezing cold. The next day, none of the stone layers saw him before they began filling in the hotel's foundation.

He is the only "resident" whose physical body is still there, buried in the foundation of the hotel itself.

-*-*-*-

Sanji died in 1834. He was hired as the head chef at Hotel Merry and had a big hand in making the hotel as famous as it eventually became. Despite his obvious talent in the kitchen, Sanji would often get in trouble with the owner (and guests) for openly flirting with the customers.

Still, his dishes were said to be some of the most delicious in the world and drew in thousands of guests every year.

One night, while the kitchen was slammed with orders, some oil caught fire and wasn't put out in time before it became a blaze that consumed the restaurant portion of the hotel, as well as two whole floors.

Sanji died in that fire, but it’s said that before the flames took him, he managed to save every last woman and child in the building.

-*-*-*-

Chopper was only 15 when he died of an unknown illness in 1865. He had always been a very sickly child, but his grandmother had enough medical training to keep him happy and healthy enough to survive. She had been a nurse in the war, but had enough knowledge to outclass any doctor in those days.

This time was different, however.

Chopper’s grandmother had brought him into the city to seek expert medical care, but by the time they arrived, the doctors informed her that they had no treatment for such a disease and that she should try to make him comfortable. His time would come soon enough.

With nothing left to try, the two stayed in the Hotel Merry where Chopper died two days later. Had he been alive today, he could have been diagnosed and treated for cholera.

-*-*-*-

Usopp was the hotel's only handyman and took care of most repairs and other day-to-day projects. These were lean times for the Hotel Merry, however, and the owners couldn’t afford to pay much, so they let him live there free of charge.

But Usopp didn’t mind at all. He loved the Hotel Merry and wished to see it return to its glory days, when even celebrities and the very wealthy would have to book months in advance for a chance to stay there.

These days, though, the hotel was a bit run-down. The decor was outdated, the paint on the walls faded and chipped. The only guests to grace its hallways were those without anywhere else to go.

The owners of the Hotel Merry couldn't afford new equipment, so Usopp did the best he could with patches and repairs, but eventually, it got to the point where he couldn’t keep up, and the faulty equipment backfired on him in a deadly way.

Usopp died in a boiler explosion in 1890.

-*-*-*-

Nami was an infamous criminal throughout the 1920s, most well-known for the $700,000 she stole in cash, bonds, and jewelry from banks and passenger trains through multiple armed robberies. She killed eight men in her lifetime and was feared by everyone up and down the coast.

She made a name for herself as “Red Nami” from the color of her hair and all the blood she spilled throughout her sordid criminal career.

Then, one day all her crimes finally caught up with her.

On a Summer day in 1928, Nami’s hideout was found. The outlaw was chased by police all throughout the city until she finally holed up in the Hotel Merry, where a shootout commenced. Red Nami did not survive that shootout, dying as quickly and violently as she had lived.

-*-*-*-

Franky had been in the mafia throughout his formative years and into his late 20s. What you wouldn't be able to see just from looking at him though, is that he desperately wanted out.

He was sick and tired of organized crime. Tired of making people “disappear” and covering up evidence. Tired of beating the living shit out of people just because they wouldn’t (or couldn’t) comply with his boss’s demands.

He just wanted to be a good person and make an honest living doing good, old-fashioned hard work.

That's why he signed up for a construction gig renovating the old Hotel Merry and building an additional five floors to it. It was supposed to be a huge project to revitalize the old place, as it was going to be recognized as a historical landmark.

He honestly couldn’t care less what it was supposed to be. He just wanted anything to take him away from his old life.

Now, this was 1951 and safety regulations were not what they are today. A couple of missed steps and Franky fell from the top of what would be the 14th floor to the street below.

-*-*-*-

Robin was a spy for the CIA during the Cold War. Not much is known about her career in espionage, but what _is_ known is that she was damn good at her job. She got sensitive information when and where it was needed and covered her tracks like she was never there.

Unfortunately, all of her success turned her into a target for others in her field, both allies and enemies alike.

One night in 1971, Robin met with two supposed allies in a room at the Hotel Merry to bring them up to date on some new important intel she had gathered. It was supposed to have been a routine check-in, which would have taken under an hour to complete.

The next day, all three who had entered the room were found dead. The running theory is that the two others she met with that night had been planning to assassinate her, and she was able to take them down with her. That’s all speculation, though. Only Robin knows what really happened that night.

-*-*-*-

Zoro is the only ghost who had never actually been inside the hotel before he died in 1994. He could never have afforded to stay there, anyway.

He and his sister Kuina had lived on the streets together since they were kids. It was the only life they had ever really known and though they were poor, they were happy together.

Still, his sister would always look up at the fancy, bright Hotel Merry and wish she could stay there just for one night. She thought it would be so much fun.

So, Zoro did what any good brother would do. He worked and saved up little by little until he could afford for the two of them to stay a night at the Hotel Merry.

When he brought his sister to the hotel for the surprise, however, the clerk wouldn’t even let them in the door. He took one look at the dirty children and physically threw them out, causing Kuina to stumble and fall down the front steps.

Zoro kind of went off the rails after she died and got into a lot of things he shouldn't have. Violent things.

It all ended one evening in a knife fight way across town. For some reason, though, his spirit (lost, probably) still ended up at that damn hotel.

-*-*-*-

Luffy died today. His grandpa is in the city for some military function, and Luffy’s brothers are off on a post-graduation trip together, so Grandpa Garp brought Luffy with him because he doesn't trust him not to wreck their house while he's gone.

The only problem was, Garp couldn't bring Luffy along to the function either, so he had to stay alone at the hotel.

Energetic and curious as always, Luffy can't sit still for five minutes without getting bored, so he went exploring, and found the gigantic hotel pool that was built just last year. Twelve feet deep at the deep end and 40 feet long, it was a magnificent pool and looked like it would be a lot of fun to splash around in for a while.

Luffy can't swim, though, which is a fact that simply slipped his mind before he leaped off the diving board into the deep end. No one was watching when Luffy drowned.

-*-*-*-

Though their lives may have ended, this isn't really the end. They're ghosts now, and all of them inhabit the same space, bumping into each other and crossing paths for decades, if not centuries for some. 

With its nine dead inhabitants, the Hotel Merry has never been so lively.

**Author's Note:**

> That's all I got for now! I'll definitely return to this soon and write more for this au. If you liked it, let me know and have a happy Halloween!
> 
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/nopleaseexplain) | [Tumblr](https://ruskaina.tumblr.com/)
> 
> EDIT: There's a second part to this, and a third in the works! So, if you enjoyed this, you might also like What Comes Next :)


End file.
